Zillow Offers 'Self-Tours' of Its Owned Houses

Have you ever wanted to look around a home you’re interested in without an agent or owner guiding you? US portal giant Zillow has announced that it will allow self-tours of the houses it acquires via its iBuyer program. Prospective buyers will be able to take a look around houses unencumbered by an agent whenever they choose by using the Zillow app and will be able to stay as long as they like and come back to visit whenever they want. Zillow is also making a big push to have all of the housing stock it owns kitted out with 3d tours and floorplans as part of the effort to quickly sell its houses and make a success of its much vaunted iBuyer program.

According to the FAQs, any home on the portal with the ‘owned by Zillow’ sign is eligible for self viewings but not all have the feature yet. The tours are not exclusive and participants are requested to practice social distancing and wear a mask if there are other people looking around the house. Zillow has so-called Buyer Success Specialists available via the app to answer any questions house-hunters may have after viewing a home.

As the Zillow website suggests, the benefits of this way of viewing a house are certainly the convenience and freedom that it provides. What may be concerning to Zillow’s agent customers however is that this new way to look around a home removes the need for a specialist intermediary almost entirely. It will be interesting to see whether the trust the American public has in the Zillow brand as a property website translates into trust as an end-to-end home transaction platform.